


The Monsters We Know

by spookyskittles



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: (Robot moms are weird), Bittersweet, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Four is afraid of ghosts, Gen, I don't know how to tag this, Introspective five-year-olds, Oneshot, Pre-Canon, brothers learning to be brothers, i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22127224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookyskittles/pseuds/spookyskittles
Summary: Six doesn't want to share a room. And why does it have to be with Four?
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 14
Kudos: 113





	The Monsters We Know

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a Tumblr post that discussed the possibility that Klaus and Ben shared a room, based on one of Vanya's flashbacks in S01E10.
> 
> I love the dynamic the two characters have on the show, so I thought it would be a fun piece of backstory to explore!

_RH, 1994_

_Number Four has developed severe insomnia and experiences night terrors. This affects his performance during practice sessions. Sleep medication is effective but appears to dampen his abilities, which has forced me to seek out an alternative solution._

\- - -

"I don't want to share a room," Six scowled as he was led through the upper halls, his father's hand set firmly on his shoulder.

"Number Six, you will speak to me with more respect," his father commanded without a downward glance.

Six dropped his gaze. "Yes, sir."

"I have observed you tend to isolate yourself from others," his father elaborated matter-of-factly. "I believe a shared room will be beneficial to you both."

"But he's so weird," Six whispered reproachfully, and peeked up at his father. If he'd heard the complaint, he gave no indication.

The door to his new room was already open, and Number Four was sitting on a bed that had obviously been straightened up by Mom. Six wondered how long he'd had to wait there. He looked miserable. At least that made the feeling mutual.

Four gestured at the adjacent wall, to where Six's bed had been moved. The bedrooms were the most cramped areas in the otherwise expansive house, and a second bed only emphasized the deficit of space.

Their father patted Six on the shoulder. "Free period ends at 14:45 for a group activity," he reminded both boys and departed, leaving Six in the doorway.

Six glowered at Four resentfully, but the other boy wouldn't even lift his head.

Well, that suited Six just fine.

\- - -

Six covered his head with his pillow and pressed it against his ears. "Stop it, stop it!" he shouted.

"They're everywhere," the other boy cried insensibly.

Six could hear someone open the door and step over the threshold to turn on the light. He pushed the pillow away to see who it was.

Grace walked over to Four's bed and sat on the edge beside him. He stared at her, still sobbing, and she patted his back.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" she said with a gentle smile.

Four sniffed and struggled to level his voice. "Can I have my medicine?"

Grace took a handkerchief out of a pocket in her skirt and wiped his nose. "Daddy says it's bad for you, remember?"

"It makes the monsters go away," Four protested. "Please, Mom!"

"How about I read you a story instead?" Grace said, and reached over to the dresser to pick up a picture book.

Four pushed the book out of her hand. "They'll get me! Make them go away!"

Grace's smile never wavered. "Just try to lie down and relax. Nobody will get you. You're safe here."

"But I see them," Four insisted. "They're everywhere! They're going to get me. Please, Mom."

"Twinkle twinkle, little star," Grace hummed, placing the book back on the dresser from her seat on his bed, "how I wonder what you are."

"Mom," Four pleaded, and shook her arm. "Stop!"

"Like a diamond in the sky, up above the world so high—"

Four collapsed forward helplessly, and cried into her lap. She stroked his hair, unbothered.

"Twinkle twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are," she finished, and picked him up from her lap by his shoulders to lay him carefully back down on his pillow.

"See?" she smiled down at his tear-stained face. "All better. Good night, sweetie."

She rose from his bedside and walked over to the doorway. Six closed his eyes to avoid her attention.

"Good night both of you," she winked, and the warm light of the room left with her.

Four started crying again. But quieter.

\- - -

"Dad took Four away," Three whispered to the others at the breakfast table.

One leaned over to her, and his sleeve dipped into the jam on his toast. "Why? Did he get sick like Seven?"

"No," Five jumped in, self-assured, "but we probably won't see him for a while."

Six shoveled scrambled eggs into his mouth and wondered if Four would be gone long enough for him to get some decent sleep.

"He's in trouble," Five continued. "He's doing poorly in his sessions."

Two struggled to join the conversation. "H-His-s? H-his p-p...p-p..."

"Is there something wrong with his powers?" One finished for him, and Two shrank in his seat.

Five took a swill from his plastic juice cup and shook his head. "No, he's _afraid_ of them."

"Afraid!" Three chirped incredulously, and they all began to giggle with her. "How can you be afraid of your powers?"

Six looked at them, and their laughter churned the eggs in his stomach into a nauseous slime.

"Your sleeve has jam on it," Three told One with a grin.

\- - -

Four was wailing again. Wherever Dad had taken him, it hadn't helped, and Six was starting to wish their father had left him there. Frustration boiled in his chest until he couldn't stand the noise anymore.

"I hate sharing a room with you," he shouted, sitting up in his bed. "Don't you ever get tired of screaming like that?"

"It's the monsters. They're going to get me when I sleep," Four cried.

Six huffed. "Nobody's going to get you. Remember what Mom said?"

"Mom is wrong," Four said between hiccups.

"You're impossible," Six snapped.

Four wiped various fluids from his face with a shaky hand. "I'm scared."

_How can you be afraid of your own powers?_

Six's frustration lumped in his throat. "Is it your powers?" he said quietly.

Four hugged his knees up to his chest. "Dad says I can see the dead."

"I know," Six said. "What happens when you try to sleep?"

"There's more of them at night, and I can't make them go away."

"Those are the monsters?" Six frowned. "But they're only people."

Four shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. "They look awful. They're broken and twisted and missing skin, and some have holes instead of eyes, and there's all this blood..." He pushed his face into his knees and began to cry again.

Six sat frozen in bed, his heart pounding in his ears. "Can they touch you?"

Four lifted his head and shook it. "I don't know, but sometimes they try."

Six looked down at the back of his hands. He could hear Four sniffling still. "Do you think...I'm a monster?"

"No," Four said.

"Dad says when we're older, we'll get to be superheroes, and fight bad guys like on TV," Six started hesitantly. "But my powers...What I train for...Will I kill people? Doesn't that make me a monster?"

Four stared at him for a moment, then pulled back his blankets and crawled over to the foot of his bed. "But they'd be bad people."

"But they'd be people," Six reiterated emphatically, worry drawn on his small face. Four didn't respond.

"Dad sets up dummies for me to destroy," Six rambled on, a dam blown a leak, "and sometimes I realize, eventually those dummies are going to be real people. They're going to look like your monsters," he said, and his voice cracked. "Broken, and twisted." Four's eyes drifted away, and Six let out a sob.

"I'm scared," he confessed.

"Me too," said Four.

At least that made the feeling mutual.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! If you have any thoughts or feels, please do leave them down below in the form of a comment! :)


End file.
